PCI Express 6 spec promises massive headroom for AI and storage

PCI Express 5.0 has barely been finalized, but that isn't stopping its creators from dreaming about what comes next. The PCI Special Interest Group has unveiled a PCI Express 6.0 specification that should deliver up to a blistering 256GB per second...

Ceton ships InfiniTV 6 PCIe tuner, crams six HD channels into a home theater PC

Ceton ships InifiniTV 6 CableCARD tuner in PCIe form

Ceton vowed that it would release a PCI Express equivalent of its InfiniTV 6 ETH box, and it's delivering on that promise (if belatedly) by shipping the InfiniTV 6 PCIe. The adapter still lets Windows Media Center users watch or record up to six HD cable TV channels through one CableCARD, but in a form factor that slots neatly into a dedicated home theater PC. The board is in stock at Amazon and Newegg today at its expected $299 price. While that cost puts the InfiniTV PCIe at the high end of the TV tuner spectrum, it may be worthwhile for viewers who just can't afford to miss a show.

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Source: Ceton, Amazon, Newegg

SATA 3.2 standard finalized, promises faster and smaller storage

SATA 3.2 standard finalized, promises faster and smaller storage

There's no doubt that Serial ATA storage is hitting a wall when even mainstream PCs like the MacBook Air and VAIO Pro use the PCI Express interface to get around performance bottlenecks. It's a good thing that SATA-IO just ratified the improved SATA 3.2 specification, then. The new standard centers on SATA Express, which lets SATA storage ride on the PCIe bus and more than doubles the available bandwidth to 16Gbps (2GB/s). Version 3.2 also brings support for the M.2 format, giving Ultrabooks and tablets access to SATA Express in a tiny form factor. We're already getting a peek at what the new spec can do when M.2-based PCIe drives offer comparable performance, but SATA 3.2's ratification should bring that kind of speed to many more PCs in the future.

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Source: SATA-IO

Samsung announces 3,000 MB/s enterprise SSD, shames competition

Samsung announces 3,000 MB/s enterprise SSD, shames competition

The ink has barely dried on Samsung's last SSD announcement and the South Korean manufacturer has already made it obsolete by orders of magnitude. This 2.5-inch enterprise-class SSD isn't for us regular Joes, but if you thought the company's EVO 840's 540 MB/s was zippy, hold on to your desk chair. The newly announced NVMe SSD XS1715 reads data at a mind-numbing 3,000 MB/s. Hitting these absurd numbers isn't without a caveat, though, as this SSD won't run on a SATA-6 port -- it requires a PCIe hookup. When these speed demons do arrive, they'll be available in 400GB, 800GB and 1.6TB sizes. Oh, and we want one. For business.

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Samsung makes first PCIe-based SSD for Ultrabooks, we see one likely customer

Samsung starts making first PCIe SSD for Ultrabooks

Solid-state drives are so speedy these days that that even a SATA interface might not have the bandwidth to cope. It's a good thing that Samsung has started mass-producing the first PCI Express-based SSDs for Ultrabooks, then. The new XP941 series uses PCIe's wider data path to read at nearly 1.4GB/s -- that's 2.5 times faster than the quickest SATA SSDs, and nimble enough to move 500GB in six minutes. It also ships in a tinier M.2 format that makes past card-based SSDs look gargantuan, even when there's up to 512GB of storage. Samsung hasn't named laptop makers receiving the XP941, although it doesn't take strong deductive skills to spot one of the (probable) first customers. When Apple is shipping a new 13-inch MacBook Air that just happens to use a very similar PCIe SSD from Samsung, there's likely more than coincidence at work.

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Source: Samsung

Broadcom intros a trio of 802.11ac WiFi chips for PCs and set-top boxes

Broadcom chipset

Broadcom has focused most of its 802.11ac WiFi efforts this year on high- and low-end mobile chips. Today, it's swinging that attention back to bigger machinery like PCs and set-top boxes. The company's new BCM4350, BCM43556 and BCM43558 all carry more robust, 2 X 2 MIMO antennas that help them hit 866Mbps speeds and optimize traffic through beamforming. Any differences, Broadcom notes, revolve around everything but the WiFi. The BCM4350 carries a more PC-like set of interfaces that includes Bluetooth 4.0, PCI Express and SDIO 3.0; the BCM43558 drops the PCIe and SDIO in favor of USB 3.0, while the BCM43556 also sheds Bluetooth. Although we don't know which companies plan to use the nimbler wireless technology, it should ship to gadget makers in the second half of this year.

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Source: Broadcom

OCZ demos Vector SSD in even speedier PCI Express form for the pros

OCZ demos Vector SSD in even speedier PCI Express form for the pros

OCZ produced something of a surprise when its in-house Vector SSD stood well against more seasoned competition. It's proud enough of that feat that it's following up with demos of a PCI Express model for creative pros and others that may deal with exceptionally massive file transfers. The switch away from SATA isn't just cosmetic, as PC Perspective saw: PCIe gives the Vector more bandwidth and raw actions per second, on top of boosting the peak storage and reducing lag. OCZ warns us that the demo unit is a prototype and doesn't say when we might see a production model, though we'd venture that the usual PCIe storage price premium will be in effect.

Continue reading OCZ demos Vector SSD in even speedier PCI Express form for the pros

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Source: PC Perspective

mLogic’s mLink Thunderbolt PCIe Mac expansion chassis now shipping for $399

mLogic's mLink Thunderbolt chassis ready to bring PCIe expansion to your Mac for $399

After a lengthy certification delay, mLogic's mLink PCIe Thunderbolt expansion chassis is now up for grabs. The device branches to any Mac computer equipped with the high-speed port, allowing you to install a half-length PCIe board -- opening up a world of RAID storage, high speed networking and video capture to otherwise slotless Minis or Macbooks. The company says it's now in stock and shipping for $399, and added that it made good use of the lag time for more extensive thermal and EMI testing. A special Red Rocket model is supposed to follow along at $699 for RED cinema camera RAW video conversion duties, but if plain old 2K or HD video is good enough, hit the source to get it.

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Via: Mac News

Source: mLogic